A Job Well Done
by Kitzune101
Summary: Charlie Weasley was given the task of destroying the Philosopher's stone. He races through the skies to Romania, but will he be able to when everything and apparently Mother Nature herself is against him as well? Find out. -contest entry- oneshot


**A/N**

Story Title/Link: s/13296703/1/A-Job-Well-Done

School: Hogwarts

Prompts:hurricane, Charlie Weasley, Philosophers stone

Year: 5

Wordcount: 1935 before authors notes

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A rugged, tall, flaming red haired man dropped to the ground and dismounted onto the astronomy tower. Albus Dumbledore peered at him through his half moon spectacles, smiling slightly. "Why hello there, Charlie,"It has been a while since I last saw you." He chuckled softly.

"Well, It's a pleasure to see you again, Professor," his voice was deep. Charlie reached out his calloused hand to shake Albus's boney one who shook it with a jolly smile. Albus's smile fell slightly as he became more serious.

"You understand... this mission is very dangerous, don't you Charlie?" Charlie nodded, clearly he had thought about it quite a lot on the flight over. "If you should fail…"

"I won't," Charlie said firmly.

"But if you do, Voldemort will return. You must not let his followers get the stone. The only element strong enough to destroy it is dragon fire, and I know you are the one who can do it. I trust you implicitly," his eyes softened slightly, "But do be careful Charlie."

"You know me, Professor." Charlie's eyes twinkled slightly.

"Yes, that's why I feel the need to remind you to be careful."

Albus handed Charlie a small parcel. He peeked inside, and there was a milky ruby and gold stone where it shone brightly inside it's wrappings. It was the philosopher's stone. The very key to immortality He wrapped it back up and quickly stashed it in his pocket.

"Don't worry so much, it'll be alright. I'm a Weasley, and I won't fail you, Professor." Charlie turned, mounted his broom, and pushed off quickly. Abord his Comet 260, he shot through the sky at top speed. The sky was dark, like black with a fine sprinkle of twinkling stars. Charlie wrapped himself in his cloak to hopefully help hide his presence from the dark lord's followers.

Charlie hoped that he who must not be named would never see this coming, and that he would be the one to take the stone from existence entirely. Maybe he would be expecting an Auror, not a lowly dragon trainer. He had thought about riding that sweet Swedish Shortsnout, but he knew it would be far too noticeable, both to muggles and death eaters alike. Much better to ride a broom.

It was quiet, too quiet making Charlie quite suspicious. He turned to look behind him, two death eaters were tailing him. They shot hexes at him, which he dodged easily enough. Another good reason Albus chose him, he was a great flyer during his time as the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Charlie dropped quickly under the train bridge, and swooped quickly to the left. The two death eaters following at his tail. He flew up and over the buildings of London at top speed, trying to avoid them at all costs and then dove quickly down again. He couldn't seem to shake them.

He made his way through the clouds. He relaxed as he seemed to have shook them, at least for the time being. The clouds seemed thicker and lower than usual, and Charlie had a strong sense of foreboding. He tried to shake the feeling that he had made a grave mistake flying above the clouds like that. Charlie spotted lightning ahead, forcing him to drop down the clouds, the hurling winds making it very difficult to keep his broom steady.

Some time had passed, and he knew he should be approaching Romania by now. The clouds hang heavy and the turbulent winds kept knocking him off coarse. It was becoming harder and harder to control the broom.

The death eaters popped out of the clouds ahead, blocking his way;clearly he had never really lost them. They threw hexes at him again. Red ones, clearly Cruciatus Curse. He dodged and pulled his wand out, firing curses in return. He hit one and the Death Eater's body seized up and he fell to the ground.

The Death Eater that was still flying, struggled with the wind as debris started to fly through the air at them from neighboring buildings. Charlie turned just in time to see a huge hurricane forming, reaching its cone down to graze the landscape. That would explain the wind, he thought. He struggled to control his broom as he watched trees and rooftops being ripped away and sucked up into the massive twister. It had to be a good fifty feet in diameter, at least. Just then, Charlie had an idea.

With his arm over his face to shield himself from the debris, he shouted back at the Death Eater, "You want it so bad? Come get it!"

Charlie flew towards the hurricane with deafening speed, the Death Eater right on his tail. He reached into his pocket and grasped the faux, ruby-red necklace his sister had given him for luck. He struggled to get the faux ruby off the chain, and as he was just about to be sucked into the hurricane and struggled against the winds Charlie chucked the red faux ruby into the hurricane.

Charlie then seemingly sped off, fleeing the scene. He looked back briefly, and watched as the Death Eater watching the hurricane, trying to find the ruby. His plan worked, the Death Eater thought the ruby was the stone. He resisted the sudden urge to do a little victory dance, but he didn't want to tip him off to his little trick.

The hurricane picked up speed and he knew he had to find somewhere safe to ride out the storm. Looking around, he could see an old barn, and hoping that it would hold for the night, or even better that the hurricane would miss it. He crossed his fingers and flew towards it, fighting for every inch of air he covered. At least it would be a good hiding place if the Death Eater realized he'd fooled him with a fake Philosophers Stone.

Charlie huddled up in a corner of an old cattle stall. The barn was old and clearly hadn't been used in a long time; the wood was rotting and every time he shifted it creaked and groaned. There was no hay to keep him warm, and the loft had long been deserted. The wind howled outside as a wolf would howl to its packmates. Charlie could hear the debris crashing against the side of the barn, he would not be sleeping tonight.

Up to here He crept up to the window to take a small peek to see if the death eater was gone. Peering over the top of the rotted windowsill he noticed the death eater was nowhere to be seen; however, the hurricane was hurtling towards the barn with great speed. Charlie had but a split second to decide whether to stay and chance it or leave and chance the death eater coming out of nowhere to come after him again. After all, there was still a chance that he found him out.

Charlie watched it coming towards him at an alarming rate and quickly decided that his life was better off with the death eater. He briskly mounted his Nimbus 2000 and pushed off the ground as hard as he could and narrowly missed the hurricane as it decimated the little broken down barn he was hiding in. The wind was pulling on his broom in attempt to suck him into its cyclone of dread.

Pushing his poor broom to its limits, he pushed forward and gripped the handle as hard as he could, but found himself at a standstill. If only it would turn just slightly he could get away. He fought through those winds for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. Finally Charlie thought he was free but was sucked quickly into the swirling vortex.

He tumbled and rolled, dodging debris expertly. Suddenly the wind stopped. He was in the eye of the storm. He looked up at the wind swirling around him and smiled. He may have been just the first wizard to see the inside of a hurricane and possibly live to tell the tail. He couldn't wait to rub it in to percy. Then he had to quickly grip the handle again as he hit the tail wind wall. He was almost knocked off his broom due to the sudden force, but was able to dodge and weave out of it.

When it passed he set down so he could catch a breath. Looking around he noticed the second death eaters broom smashed to pieces and the death eater lying unconscious on the ground. Looks like he's going to have a nice flight to romania from here on out. Charlie was feeling quite safe now so he decided to fly to a nearby town and take a room at an inn to rest.

He stopped at a little rundown tavern in the middle of nowhere. He meandered up to the barkeep and tried to look tall and much tougher than he really was.

"Can I get a room?" The barkeep looked him up and down. He was a burly man with an anchor tattoo on his upper arm and a mean look on his face. He was most likely a sailor back in his day. Finishing cleaning the mug in his hands he responded after a small silence.

"Suppose. How much you payin?" Charlie placed a few silver sickles on the counter. The barkeep's eyes widened. Obviously he was a muggle. "Those real?" He asked as he bit down on one to test its resistance. Charlie nodded. "Well then, upstairs to the right. All yours. And come down and have a free hot meal on the house."

"Thanks. I will." Charlie sat down and waited for his hot meal. After a few moments a large breasted waitress came out holding his bowl of chowder. She placed it in front of him. Charlie noted her flaming red curls, freckled face, and jolly demeanor.

"Anything else I can do you for?" Charlie shook his head sheepishly, his cheeks red suddenly. "Okay, well if you change your mind I will be right over there." She pointed a long, crooked finger to the kitchen. Having had a long flight, he wolfed down his food and went up the stairs to bed.

Charlie left early in the morning and made his way, after a long journey, to romania. Upon his arrival he noted all the dragons seemed to look up at him. The Hungarian Horntail hatchling spit fire at him. Of course, why use the Short Snout when the Horntail would love to do the job. Walking up to it, he raised a hand. The dragon looked at him attentively.

He pulled the stone out of his pocket and threw it up at the dragon, who quickly pulsed a cone of fire up at it, disintegrating the stone with ease. Charlie put his hands in his pockets and smiled at a job well done. Quickly he made his way to his little cottage where he could relax. He picked up a pen and parchment and quickly penned down a message.

Professor,

Mission accomplished. The item is indeed destroyed. Sorry for the delay, ran into trouble, but nothing a Weasley can't handle. Speak with you soon.

Charlie

With that he tied it to a little screech owl and sent him off and sunk into a comfy armchair and fell asleep. It certainly was indeed a job well done.


End file.
